It’s back.
Debated in campaigns, added to budgets, and removed from budgets since 2014, a county budget officer that reports to the county commission was approved by the county commissioners with the 2017 budget Tuesday night.
State law allows county commissioners to select or appoint a budget officer other than the elected auditor.
Milne voted against the 2017 budget, but not because of the budget officer position, which is expected to have an annual salary of around $70,000 to $80,000.
“When we combined the clerk and auditor offices, part of the savings was intended to fund this (the budget officer) position,” he said. “The idea was to create a better separation of duties, so the person doing the auditing isn’t also the person tracking the expenses.”
Commissioners Myron Bateman and Wade Bitner, who both voted for the 2017 budget, opposed the budget officer position during their campaigns for county commission in 2014.
In a short-lived proposal, County Commissioners Shawn Milne, Bruce Clegg and Jerry Hurst included a new “director of finance” position in the 2015 tentative budget adopted at their Sept. 30, 2014, meeting.
Bitner said during a public candidate question-and-answer meeting Oct. 2, 2014, that the proposed hiring of a financial director “perturbed” him.
“It’s not in the budget,” he said in 2014. “We don’t need a chief financial officer in the county. It’s not appropriate to add one now.”
Bateman also said at the same meeting that he would pull the plug on the financial director position if he were elected.
“I told the commissioners two months ago that if they go through with this plan that come January, I would change it in five minutes,” he said.
The director of finance position was gone by the time the county commission adopted a proposed budget during their Oct. 21, 2014, meeting.
But Bateman, Bitner and Milne included a financial advisor in their first proposed 2016 budget.
When proposing the 2016 budget, Bitner said he opposed the financial manager position in 2014 because at the time it wasn’t in the budget. He also didn’t believe it was appropriate for an outgoing commission to make such a change in county government just before they leave office.
Bateman said his preference would be to split the county clerk/auditor back into two separate offices.
However, Bateman said he found out the two offices can’t be separated for four more years.
“In the meantime, we want to look at all possibilities so we can do what is best,” he said.
The financial advisor position was cut from the budget before the final 2016 budget was approved.
Last August, the county’s independent auditor recommended the creation of a position for a budget officer that would report directly to the county commission.
“The Clerk/Auditor’s office does not have sufficient expertise or time to dedicate to the budget and reporting process,” wrote Heather Christopherson, a CPA with the county’s contracted independent auditor.
The county’s volunteer audit committee also recommended the hiring of a budget officer to work under the auspices of the county commission, according to Edwin van Stam, chairman of the volunteer audit committee.
“We recommend the commissioners look at hiring a financial reporting manager/budget officer to help the clerk/auditor’s office with the responsibilities of tracking the budget and reporting in a timely manner to the commissioners and the managers,” van Stam said in an August 2016 county commission meeting. “That will also help resolve the compliance finding with the budget. This a point we brought up two years ago and we still think it is a very important position to consider.”
Now, at the end of 2016, both Bateman and Bitner approved the 2017 budget with the budget officer as part of the county commission’s office.
“Sometimes things look a little different from the other side of the table,” Bitner said at the close of Tuesday night’s meeting.